fair I don't like. I am going home.
Good evening."

"One moment!"

"No need of that, Mon. Andermatt. I have nothing to say to you."

"But I have something to say to you, and this is a good time to say it."

"Let me pass."

"No, you will not pass."

Varin recoiled before the resolute attitude of the banker, as he
muttered:

"Well, then, be quick about it."

One thing astonished me; and I have no doubt my two companions
experienced a similar feeling. Why was Salvator not there? Was he not a
necessary party at this conference? Or was he satisfied to let these two
adversaries fight it out between themselves? At all events, his absence
was a great disappointment, although it did not detract from the
dramatic strength of the situation.

After a moment, Mon. Andermatt approached Varin and, face to face, eye
to eye, said:

"Now, after all these years and when you have nothing more to fear, you
can answer me candidly: What have you done with Louis Lacombe?"

"What a question! AS if I knew anything about him!"

"You do know! You and your brother were his constant companions, almost
lived with him in this very house. You knew all about his plans and his
work. And the last night I ever saw Louis Lacombe, when I parted with
him at my door, I saw two men slinking away in the shadows of the trees.
That, I am ready to swear to."

"Well, what has that to do with me?"

"The two men were you and your brother."

"Prove it."

"The best proof is that, two days later, you yourself showed me the
papers and the plans that belonged to Lacombe and offered to sell them.
How did these papers come into your possession?"

"I have already told you, Mon. Andermatt, that we found them on Louis
Lacombe's table, the morning after his disappearance."

"That is a lie!"

"Prove it."

"The law will prove it."

"Why did you not appeal to the law?"

"Why? Ah! Why---," stammered the banker, with a slight display of
emotion.

"You know very well, Mon. Andermatt, if you had the least certainty of
our guilt, our little threat would not have stopped you."

"What threat? Those letters? Do you suppose I ever gave those letters a
moment's thought?"

"If you did not care for the letters, why did you offer me thousands of
francs for their return? And why did you have my brother and me tracked
like wild beasts?"

"To recover the plans."

"Nonsense! You wanted the letters. You knew that as soon as you had the
letters in your possessio